AUGUSTA, Ga. — As Mark O’Meara approached the tee box of the 15th hole at Augusta National Golf Club during the first round of the 1997 Masters, he saw Tiger Woods sitting on a bench.
O’Meara, one of Woods’ closest friends and a mentor during the early years of Woods’ PGA Tour career, sat down next to him.
“Really?” O’Meara asked Woods.
“Yeah, what?” Woods replied.
“Dude, what’s going on, man?” O’Meara said. “You never play like this when you play with me at home. All you need to do is pretend like you’re playing against me. You shoot 59, you make birdies, you make holes-in-one. I mean, gimme a break.”
Only six days earlier, on April 4, 1997, O’Meara had played a round with Woods at their home course, Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Florida. Woods shot 59 on the par-72 course, the only time he has achieved golf’s magic number during a career in which he has won a record-tying 82 PGA Tour events and 15 major championships. They played again the next day — O’Meara left after Woods made birdie on the first hole and a hole-in-one on the second.
Then, less than a week later, in his first appearance as a professional at the Masters, Woods’ game was out of sorts. Playing with defending champion Nick Faldo, Woods hooked his opening tee shot left and was forced to chip out. He ended up bogeying the first hole — and then the par-3 fourth, par-5 eighth and par-4 ninth. He didn’t make a birdie and shot 4-over 40 on the first nine holes.
“He wasn’t down in the dumps,” O’Meara recalled. “Not shellshocked, but he definitely was not happy and a little disappointed that he hadn’t gotten off to a better start. He wouldn’t have said that, but by knowing him — his emotions and things — it kind of showed when he was sitting next to me.”
Twenty-five years later, what happened over the 63 holes that followed in the 1997 Masters is still the stuff of legend. As O’Meara offered encouragement, he couldn’t have…
Source : espn
